Thank you to Beauty and Lace and Head of Zeus for the opportunity to read Summer Secrets at Streamside Cottage by Samantha Tonge.
This book has a wonderful central character, Lizzie. It is a story of family secrets, courage to be your own person, healing, and of course romance!
Lizzie is following her dream, she is a tattoo artist and happy in a relationship with Ash. She has achieved independence and wanted to show her parents her success.
Her Aunt Fiona arrives with shattering news. Lizzie’s parents have been killed in an accident. Realisation dawns on Lizzie that she has left it too late to reach out and reconcile with them. They had not spoken for 5 years, ever since the incident on her mother’s 60th Birthday.
Lizzie’s parents had acquired several properties and they are left to Lizzie. But there is another property that has been kept a secret from Lizzie. Streamside Cottage in Leafton, a small country village. Lizzie accidentally overhears that this cottage has been left to her Aunt Fiona and that she does not want anything to do with it.
One year later, her relationship with Ash is over and there are so many unexplained and unanswered questions about her parents. Lizzie decides to visit Streamside Cottage.
The locals believe the cottage to be haunted, but Lizzie feels at peace there.
She reflects on her happy childhood, her very overprotective parents and her estrangement from them. As she researches the history of the cottage, family secrets are exposed.
It is a lovely story with a surprise ending and the family secrets draw you in. It is an easy to read story, with the chapters switching from the past to the present. Uniquely, each chapter starts with a tattoo fact, adding another dimension to the book.
An excellent read. I hope there will be a sequel!
ISBN: 9781800241671
A selection of our club members are reading Summer Secrets at Streamside Cottage by Samantha Tonge. You can read their reviews below, or add your own.
I love to read, any book on any topic. I now love ebooks as they are easier to store, I was running out of bookshelves! My other interests are family, gardening and our beautiful King Charles spaniel dog who is my reading companion.
Thanks to Beauty and Lace for the chance to read Summer Secrets at Streamside Cottage by Samantha Tonge.
This is a lovely story that will enchant any reader! The story centres on Lizzie is a tattoo artist and happy in a relationship. But sudden and unexpected tragedy make Lizzie question her choices.
Lizzies journey makes for a wonderful story and the characters and situations really grabbed me.
This is a book you wont want to put down I highly recommend Summer Secrets at Streamside Cottage.
Happy reading!
Summer Secrets at Streamside Cottage by Samantha Tonge was a book that drew me in right from the beginning. Once I started it, I couldn’t put it down and I read it in 2 days. The story flipped between the ‘past’ and ‘now’, but it was easy to follow the plot. Without giving anything away, there is a great mystery that is affecting many people that needs to be solved and I couldn’t put the book down because I needed to find out the outcome and see what the resolution was going to be. I was very happy with the ending and will definitely look for more of Samantha’s books to read. Thank you Beauty and Lace for letting me review another awesome book >:o)
Summer Secrets at Streamside Cottage by Samantha Tonge is a glorious novel that you will fall in love with.
I dug right into this book mainly because I am 90% covered in tattoos so I was pleased to read a story involving a tattoo artist!
Lizzie Lockhart lived a sheltered life with parents who loved and wanted the best for her which meant shielding her from danger and hurt in life. Lizzie wanted more from life and when she went to university, she was eager to explore her freedom without constraints. The relationship with her parents became tense with Lizzie pulling away and not speaking to them for several years.
Lizzie is passionate about her career as a London based tattoo artist, she is skilled, focused and forms great relationships with her clients to entrust their safety and happiness in her art on their body which I can fully relate to.
When her Aunt Fiona visits and informs Lizzie of her parents’ death she is remorseful of the time lost with them. Her Aunt inherits Streamside Cottage in Leafton, her parents had rented it out and kept it a secret, her Aunt wants nothing to do with it but Lizzie is intrigued by the mystery of the cottage and what secrets it holds and moves to Leafton to uncover the truth and history of her parents.
Secrets have a way of coming to haunt you or the people you love and leave behind, which is the basis of this novel. Samantha draws you in with her writing skill and gives you characters you can relate to. Lizzie is passionate, warm, caring and her character evolves in each chapter. I felt many emotions from disbelief, anger to sadness, understanding and happiness.
An extremely satisfying story that I highly recommend.
Thank you Beauty and Lace and Head of Zeus for the opportunity to read and review.
Summer Secrets at Streamside Cottage by Samantha Tonge was my first book by this author and I enjoyed it very much. This story was a page-turner filled with secrets, drama and romance. Lizzie is a London based tattoo artist, estranged from her controlling parents, who discovers many secrets after they die in an accident.
I am not a fan of tattoos but did enjoy the little facts about tattoos at the beginning of each chapter.
The story does jump around to different points in Lizzie’s life so you have to pay attention to the dates at the beginning of each chapter.
This story is quite thought provoking and does make you wonder what Lizzie’s life would have been like if her parents made different decisions.
Thank you to Beauty and Lace and Head of Zeus for the opportunity to discover a new author.
This was my kind of book, perfect to escape into someone else’s world.
I love the character of Lizzie and following her story and watching her grow. I really like all the facts about tattoos.
The story jumps between now and the past, each time usually going back further than the last reference, but I didn’t find it difficult to follow along.
I also though a lot of the minor characters were fun and enjoyable, I love these books set in a small town with different personalities all around.
A book to curl up with on a winter day.
Thank you Beauty and Lace and Head of Zeus for the opportunity to read and review.
When life gets turned upside down with tragedy things often don’t make sense. Elizabeth, Lizzie, felt this way when folllowing her passion for art & tattoos and when that passion caused an irrevocable rift with her parents.
How could they not understand, they were so close, they’d protected her and helped her for so long. Her chance to mend this, to understand suddenly taken away when a freak accident kills her parents.
Only in their death does Lizzie realise there is so much more to this issue than she ever knew. A secret house they’d owned but never mentioned, the rules for no contact regardibg the house, the small town, its history and secrets. Why is this all happening now? How can she find a way to mend that which is more broken than she thought.
A story about decisions, their impact and family secrets. Its been a fun read drawing you along as the pieces of the past and present slowly pull together… does Lizzie find her happily ever after?
Thanks Beauty & Lace, Head of Zeus & Samantha for a fun read.
I have read a Samantha Tonge book before, and loved it, and Summer Secrets at Streamside Cottage was another book I loved.
It’s a heartwarming, fun read, with lots of topics covered, and deep characters. As the other comments say, it’s quite interesting to read a book about a tattoo artist – women’s fiction doesn’t often include this type of job, and so it was quite unique in that way. Definitely escapism and definitely one I would recommend!
Thank you so much for the chance to read and review Summer Secrets at Streamside Cottage.
I found the lead character instantly likeable. A tattoo artist who has just lost her parents before she was able to make amends with them.
They leave her a house she knew nothing about and through this she ends up finding out so many things she didn’t know about those she called Mum and Dad.
The story does move between now and the past but was easy to follow.
I liked all of the smaller characters and how Lizzie just kept finding out more and more, secrets about the actual house, the town etc.
I highly recommend this novel and will be reading it again myself.
Thank you!!!!
As the title suggests, this book screams secrets but will they be revealed?
Lizzie, a tattoo artist longs to find out more about her parents and a cottage they own in Leafton. After their death she becomes aware of the cottage through her Aunt and needs to know why the secrecy! Lizzy cannot move forward until she settles her mind therefore renting the cottage for a month May uncover the secrets it held and those of her parents. The enchanting village calls to Lizzie as she makes friends and asks questions. Going from her studio apartment in London where she is employed as a tattoo artist to the village means her searching can begin,
An intriguing story and one where Lizzie has any emotions ranging from her estrangement with her parents before they died to the apparent anger of her Aunt and the secrecy of the village.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story.
A small town and parents hiding a heartbreaking secret. Summer Secrets at Streamside Cottage by Samantha Tonge tells the story of Lizzie, a 27 year old tattoo artist who tragically loses her estranged parents before they could resolve the argument they had years prior. Lizzie has many questions left unanswered and ends up living at Streamside Cottage in Leafton, a property her parents owned but never told her about.
As Lizzie’s month stay ticks by, she befriends the locals, including the friendly and appealing Ben, and gradually pieces together the many secrets Lizzie was sheltered from by her parents.
Thank you to Beauty and Lace and Head of Zeus for the opportunity to read and review this charming read.